MY STORY
Two decades of building businesses, brands, and a life I thought I was supposed to want — until everything changed, and I finally started building one that's actually mine.
About Slavica
I'm Sydney born and raised, with a Croatian and Greek background, married to my Italian husband David, which means we're a multicultural family with very strong opinions about food and even stronger opinions about life and love. We have three teenagers — Chanel 19, Raquel 18, and Julien 16 — and it is never a dull moment. I'm navigating this midlife era of parenting where they're becoming their own people, stepping into their own creative expressions, and I'm stepping into my own next chapter too. I can already feel it's going to be an adventurous one.
Growing up in the 70s was something I'll always be grateful for — the music, the design, the furniture, the aesthetic of everything. But here's what still amazes me: I grew up in a very simple home, and my creativity didn't come from anything extravagant surrounding me. It was just there. Waiting.
I fell in love with design at 18, studying a Bachelor of Design in the early 90s with a cohort of creative humans that felt like pure luxury. I didn't fully understand at the time how potent those four years were — exploring who I was, building a creative foundation I'd draw on for decades.
When the internet launched as I was graduating, I knew immediately I wanted to be part of that revolution. I continued studying multimedia and web design because I had to understand this new technology completely. That curiosity never left me.
I climbed the corporate ladder, became an Art Director, managed design teams, and built my design business as a side hustle from my early twenties. At 30, I took the leap into full-time freelancing. I had three kids between 31 and 34 and kept building — graphic design, web design, interior styling, even a duplex with my husband. Always creating, always building something, raising a family at the same time. Looking back now through the lens of Human Design, I understand this is pure Manifesting Generator energy. I just didn't have the language for it yet.
In 2014 we invested in a retail tile business, The Tile Palette, and spent five years learning the hard lessons of brick-and-mortar — the numbers, the industry, the things you can only learn by living them. Every business journey prepares you for the next one.
By 2018, I was ready for more freedom. I moved online, niched into natural stone designer mosaics, and created The Design Palette. And I thought I'd found my answer.
But something was still missing. I knew what I was building was temporary. It wasn't my purpose work. I was searching for something I couldn't quite name.
THE CREATIVE JOURNEY
I kept searching, kept growing, kept healing. Personal growth became one of my highest values — non-negotiable, every single year.
Then I found Human Design.
It started as curiosity — every podcast, every book, every deep dive I could find. For the first time, I understood why I'd felt out of alignment for so many years. Why some business models felt forced. Why I thrived in certain environments and quietly withered in others. Why I kept building things that looked successful from the outside but didn't feed my soul. I finally had the blueprint I'd been missing, and alignment was the piece that had been absent the entire time.
I spent years self-studying, and on the day I turned 50 I said yes to my Human Design certification, completing it in 2026. Everything clicked. My 2 decades of design expertise and entreprneurship wasn't separate from my spiritual journey — it was all part of the same path, pointing toward the same destination.
Aligned Femme was born in March 2026, and I have finally arrived.
What I didn't know was that this move online in August 2018 was divinely timed. Because from September to November that year, my dad was in his final months. When I connect the dots now, I know I was meant to make that transition when I did — so I could be present with him in those last moments.
THE Turning point
My dad passed away in November 2018, and everything changed.
My spiritual awakening didn't arrive quietly. It completely rewrote my life. I realised I had been living by default, not by design, and I knew I couldn't go back to the way things were.
I dove deep — personal development, mindset work, meditation, manifestation, energetic healing, invested in an online business and connected with a global community of women.This is how I started building my personal brand, found my voice through writing, and fell in love with content creation as a creative outlet. I was creating for myself for the first time in a long time, and in doing that I fell back in love with design, visual identity, and branding. I started working with women building their brands online, and writing became a skill I hadn't expected to master but did.
